Home / server / Questions / 179293
Accepted
Doltknuckle
Asked: 2010-09-09 12:00:32 +0800 CST

Allowing users to configure printer ports without full admin rights on Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard

  • 772

At our organization, we have multiple levels of support personnel. The lowest (level 1) of these personnel deal with a single job site with about 40 printers. Each site has a Windows Server 2003 R2 machine that provides file and print permissions. These lower level support personnel do not have admin rights to this server and they never will. This is a problem because when a new printer is delivered, the company wide techs (level 2) must add the printer to the server.

So my question is this: Is there a way to allow non-admins to add printers to a Windows Server machine? These users shouldn't be able to add drivers or make system wide changes. They just need to be able to add, delete, and configure printer objects and printer ports. The per printer item security permission "manage printer" don't allow the user to modify the port.

Anyone have any ideas on what we can do? We need to at least let the user rename the port if possible.

Thanks in advance

[EDIT] These servers are not Domain controllers, but actually member servers. It apparently makes a difference.

printing security windows-server-2003-r2

2 Answers

  1. Make them a member of the local Print Operators group on their local Print Sever?

    For 2003, you may need to follow KB940724

    • 1
  2. Best Answer

    I am just guessing while sitting in front of a Windows 7 client, but I imagine the underlying principle is the same. You might need to create a group and fool around with the permissions. If I open up the Print Management MMC (printmanagement.msc) go to any print server and click on ports, you will get the following permissions if you click the Security Tab, then Advanced.

    • Print
    • Manage Printers
    • Manage Documents
    • View Server
    • Manage Documents

    I assume the relevant one is Manage Printers. The problem, as we can both see, is that this probably is not fine-grained enough for what you need, if you just want them to see ports. If you can live with it, all you need to do is run control printers and find the security/permissions tab. Hope that helps. Probably not though.

    • 0